Gallery Hopping: Joyce Yamada and Joanne Ungar at NURTUREart

Usually when someone calls a piece of art ‘trash,’ it connotes a negative impression (to say the least). This is not the case for the exhibition at [NURTUREart titled, Demo Eco M.O]. In this group show, the idea is to recycle elements and create new works out of them. This includes trading mediums, exchanging visual elements, sharing and making tools. Along with this, they take it a step further by using bicycles. Even the lighting of the entire exhibition was done solely by one light sculpture. There were solar panels on the roof (right next to the discarded phone books on display) that provided power to some of the sculptures.

OK, this is all good, but was any of the art good? I was actually surprised at how recycled art contained its own sense of dignity and purpose. There were waste materials hung like carcasses in a meat shop, a giant mirrored sculpture (which provided the light) and some interactive pieces as well. The visitors, fellow artists and even members of NURTURart’s Board of Trustees were encouraged to supply the elements for this. Next to this exhibit was an inventory book. We were instructed to leave something behind, and take something in it’s place.

I was particularly taken by one piece especially: “Deluge,” a collaborative installation by Joyce Yamada & Joanne Ungar (pictured).  This piece shows what might happen to the life of a Brooklyn artist after the polar ice caps have melted and much of Brooklyn is submerged under water. I know, such lofty ideas often come across as preachy, but the way this instillation references history—along with complete vision leaves one spends the time pouring over the details and witnessing art—works.

Philosophically, this is a meditation on the ramifications of humans’ romanticized (and ultimately fatal) relationship to nature. It’s the idea of how we crave the countryside, despite the fact that to live there, we have to carve out our space by clearing nature. Yamada & Unger compare this to a quest for the Garden of Eden: "...Nature is neither benign nor stable, and we ignore its true functioning at our peril; ignorance and fantasy are dangerous. Therefore, there is no paradise and no Garden of Eden”

As the main focal point, they appropriate Joseph Cornell’s “Untitled (The Hotel Eden)”  from 1942 and turn it 180 degrees. Cornell’s work is an assemblage of found materials and collage contained in a wooden box with a glass cover. He has s stuffed parrot in there; hermetically sealed, pulling wires to create the energy for an air pump to sustain life. Cornell’s  seemingly benign piece, is really quite ominous. More so is Yamada and Unger’s “Deluge;” They "sample" Cornell’s box, but the glass is broken (there are many shards of glass in this installation). Instead of the pet parrot, there is a freed pigeon (still surviving in Brooklyn). The pigeon is free, but it’s feet are stuck. The use of fouxh vermin is pretty menacing. Giant rats lurk, but are glued to the ground. In an amazing skill of reference, Joyce & Joanne utilize one of Unger’s unfinished paintings that hadn’t cured properly; the paint just oozed. This led to the idea of a toxic pool, where they re-interpreted the La Brea tar pits; turning the future into the ancient. The piece is a dystopian vision and is meant as a Cautionary Tale of life in the near future if we humans continue carelessly with business as usual.

There is so much that is amazing about this work that you have to experience it. It’s not in the main gallery, but at the entrance, with chipped paint, a rusty ladder and decay. It works so well there: All of the lighting is supplied by the solar panels on the roof. Still, at the end of the night, since the whole thing is mounted on wheels, they put it inside the gallery. This mobile installation deserves a major shot at the Chelsea galleries.

Through Aug. 18, NURTUREart gallery, 910 Grand St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn.